From: 2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6
Christian Ministry is Superior to that of the Old Covenant
St Paul’s Sincere Conduct
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Commentary:
12-18. In these verses St Paul continues to stress that the apostolic ministry is
superior to that of Moses; he recalls the veil with which Moses covered his face
after he had been speaking to Yahweh. The Apostle declares that this event was
a symbol: the veil served Moses not only to hide the radiance of his f or of the Ho-
ly Spirit, in the New Testament, brings with it the freedom of the children of God
obtained by Christ, who has freed us from sin and from the Old Law (cf. Rom 8:
1-17; Gal 4:21-31).
Christian freedom does not mean ignoring any bond or law; it means accepting
God’s commandments not in a servile way, out of fear of punishment, but rather
as children who strive to do what pleases their Father God. St Augustine ex-
plains this as follows: “That person lives under the weight of the law who avoids
sin out of fear of the punishment which the law threatens, rather than because of
any liking for righteousness [...]. If you let yourselves be led by the Spirit, you
will not be under the weight of the law; of that law which is considered to inspire
fear and terror, and does not instill charity or a taste for goodness; charity which
has been poured into our hearts, not by the letter of the law, but by the Holy Spi-
rit, who has been given us. That is the law of freedom, not the law of slavery, for
it is the law of charity, not that of fear” (”De Natura Et Gratia”, LVII, 67).
18. The teaching expounded in the previous verses leads to this final joyous de-
claration, in which St Paul sums up the Christian’s spiritual itinerary. Just as Mo-
ses’ face reflected the splendor of Yahweh after he had been speaking to him on
Sinai, Christians in their lives reflect the splendor of Christ, whom they contem-
plate in faith: “The Christian who has been cleansed by the Holy Spirit in the sa-
crament of regeneration”, St John Chrysostom comments, “is changed, as the
Apostle puts it, into the likeness of Jesus Christ himself. Not only does he be-
hold the glory of the Lord but he takes on some of the features of God’s glory [...].
The soul who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit receives and radiates the splen-
dor of the heavenly glory that has been given him” (”Hom. on 2 Cor.”, 7).
Moreover, whereas the radiance of Moses was a passing thing, that of Christians
steadily increases the more they become identified with Christ through docility to
the influence of grace on their souls: “Docility, because it is the Holy Spirit who,
with his inspirations, gives a supernatural tone to our thoughts, desires and ac-
tions. It is he who leads us to receive Christ’s teaching and to assimilate it in a
profound way. It is he who gives us the light by which we perceive our personal
calling and the strength to carry out all that God expects of us. If we are docile to
the Holy Spirit, the image of Christ will be formed more and more fully in us, and
we will be brought closer every day to God the Father” (J. Escriva, “Christ Is Pas-
sing By”, 135).
1-6. St Paul here stresses one of the main points he makes in this part of the let-
ter — the sincerity and genuineness of his conduct, and therefore his rejection of
anything to do with lies or underhand ways (cf. 1:12, 17; 2:17; 3:1). Unlike the
false apostles, his own aim in preaching is to teach the truth of Jesus Christ with-
out any dilution or compromise (cf., for example, 1 Cor 1:18-25; Gal 2:11ff). If, in
spite of everything, there are still some who cannot see the truth of the Gospel,
the reason lies in their bad dispositions, which allow the devil — the god of this
world (cf. Jn 12:31; 14:30; Eph 2:2)—to darken their minds. That is why they fail
to recognize the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect image of God the Fa-
ther (vv. 4-6).
The Apostle’s approach to preaching as here described reminds us of the need to
speak out clearly, very conscious that we have been entrusted by God with a trea-
sure which we must respect and venerate and pass on in all its fullness. “Every
evangelizer”, Pope Paul VI teaches, “ is expected to have a reverence for truth,
especially since the truth that he studies and communicates is none other than
revealed truth and hence, more than any other, a sharing in the first truth which
is God himself. The preacher of the Gospel will therefore be a person who even
at the price of personal renunciation and suffering always seeks the truth that he
must transmit to others. He never betrays or hides truth out of a desire to please
men or in order to astonish or to shock, nor for the sake of originality or from a
desire to make an impression. He does not refuse truth. He does not obscure re-
vealed truth by being too idle to search for it, or for the sake of his own comfort,
or out of fear. He does not neglect to study it. He serves it generously, without
making it serve him” (”Evangelii Nuntiandi”, 78).
1. “By the mercy of God”: as the RSV note points out, this in Greek reads “as
we have received mercy”, or “by the mercy which has been done unto us”, which
goes back to a Jewish turn of phrase designed to avoid mentioning the name of
God. St Paul also speaks in the plural, out of modesty.
4. “To keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel”: this is what the Greek
text means. The New Vulgate translation is somewhat different, but it can be in-
terpreted as meaning the same.
Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, is the perfect likeness of God (cf. Col
1:15; Heb 1:3). “For something to be a perfect image of something else,” St Tho-
mas explains, “three things are needed, and all three are to be found perfectly in
Christ. The first of these is likeness; the second is the origin; and the third, com-
plete equality. For if there were any dissimilarity between the image and him
whose image it is, or if the image did not have its origin in the other, or if there
were not perfect equality, given that both have the same nature, there would be
no perfect image [...]. Since all three are to be found in Christ — he is the like-
ness of the Father, he proceeds from the Father, and he is equal to the Father —
he is called the image of God in the fullest and most perfect sense” (”Commen-
tary on 2 Cor, ad loc.”). Moreover, as perfect man he is the visible likeness of the
invisible God: “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of
the Father, he has made him known” (Jn 1:18).
5. St Paul often calls Jesus “Lord” (cf., e.g., Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 5:6; 12:3; Phil 2:
11). This is a clear assertion of Christ’s divinity, for “Lord” is the word the Greeks
normally use when translating “Yahweh” (cf. note on 1 Cor 8:4-6).
This faith in Christ’s divinity is so basic to Christianity that St Paul can sum up
the essence of his preaching in these words: we preach Christ as Lord.
6. Contrary to what happens in the case of those who resist belief (v. 4), God has
enlightened the hearts of Christians with the light of faith. St Paul recalls the mo-
ment when God created light (cf. Gen 1:3), as if to refer to the new creation resul-
ting from the infusion of the light of faith (cf. 2 Cor 5:17), which only happens with
God’s intervention: for “no one can ‘assent to the Gospel preaching as he must in
order to be saved without the enlightenment and inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
who gives all men their joy in assenting to and believing the truth’ (Second Coun-
cil of Orange). Hence, faith itself [...] is essentially a gift of God; and the act of
faith is a work pertaining to salvation. By this act man offers to God himself a free
obedience inasmuch as he concurs and cooperates with God’s grace, when he
could resist it” (Vatican I, “Dei Filius”, chap. 3).
Commenting on this passage of the epistle, St Thomas Aquinas gives a beautiful
description of the way faith works in the soul of St Paul, and in that of every Chris-
tian: “Previously, that is, before being converted to Christ, we were dark, like you
and like those in whom the brightness of Christ’s glory does not shine. Now, how-
ever, after Christ calling us through his grace, the darkness has been taken away
from us, and the power of the glory of the clear light of Christ is shining in us. It
shines so powerfully in us that not only are we given light to let us see: we also
have light for giving to others” (”Commentary on 2 Cor, ad loc.”). A Christian
should not hide the light of his faith but should use it to enlighten those around
him.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 5:20-26
Jesus and His Teaching, the Fulfillment of the Law (Continuation)
[21] “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and
whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ [22] But I say to you that every one who
is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother
shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the
hell of fire. [23] So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember
that your brother has something against you, [24] leave your gift there before the
altar and go; first to be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your
gift. [25] Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to
court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard,
and you be put in prison; [26] truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you
have paid the last penny.
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Commentary:
20. “Righteousness”: see the note on Matthew 5:6 (see below). This verse clari-
fies the meaning of the preceding verses. The scribes and Pharisees had distor-
ted the spirit of the Law, putting the whole emphasis on its external, ritual obser-
vance. For them exact and hyper-detailed but external fulfillment of the precepts
of the Law was a guarantee of a person’s salvation: “If I fulfill this I am righteous,
I am holy and God is duty bound to save me.” For someone with this approach
to sanctification it is really not God who saves: man saves himself through ex-
ternal works of the Law. That this approach is quite mistaken is obvious from
what Christ says here; in effect what He is saying is: to enter the Kingdom of
God the notion of righteousness or salvation developed by the scribes and Pha-
risees must be rejected. In other words, justification or sanctification is a grace
from God; man’s role is one of cooperating with that grace by being faithful to it.
Elsewhere Jesus gives the same teaching in an even clearer way (cf. Luke 18:
9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector). It was also the origin
of one of St. Paul’s great battles with the “Judaizers” (see Galatians 3 and Ro-
mans 2-5).
21. Verses 21-26 gives us a concrete example of the way that Jesus Christ
brought the Law of Moses to its fulfillment, by explaining the deeper meaning
of the commandments of that Law.
22. By speaking in the first person (”but I say to you”) Jesus shows that His
authority is above that of Moses and the prophets; that is to say, He has divine
authority. No mere man could claim such authority.
“Insults”: practically all translations of this passage transcribe the original Ara-
maic word, “raca” (cf. RSV note below). It is not an easy word to translate. It
means “foolish, stupid, crazy”. The Jews used it to indicate utter contempt; of-
ten, instead of verbal abuse they would show their feelings by spitting on the
ground.
“Fool” translates an ever stronger term of abuse than “raca”—implying that a per-
son has lost all moral and religious sense, to the point of apostasy.
In this passage our Lord points to three faults which we commit against charity,
moving from internal irritation to showing total contempt. St. Augustine com-
ments that three degrees of faults and punishments are to be noted. The first is
the fault of feeling angry; to this corresponds the punishment of “judgment”. The
second is that of passing an insulting remark, which merits the punishment of
“the council”. The third arises when anger quite blinds us: this is punished by
“the hell of fire” (cf. “De Serm. Dom. in Monte”, II, 9).
“The hell of fire”: literally, “Gehenna of fire”, meaning, in the Jewish language of
the time, eternal punishment.
This shows the gravity of external sins against charity — gossip, backbiting, ca-
lumny, etc. However, we should remember that these sins stem from the heart;
our Lord focuses our attention, first, on internal sins — resentment, hatred, et
cetera — to make us realize that that is where the root lies and that it is impor-
tant to nip anger in the bud.
23-24. Here our Lord deals with certain Jewish practices of His time, and in doing
so gives us perennial moral teaching of the highest order. Christians, of course,
do not follow these Jewish ritual practices; to keep our Lord’s commandment we
have ways and means given us by Christ Himself. Specifically, in the New and
definitive Covenant founded by Christ, being reconciled involves going to the Sa-
crament of Penance. In this Sacrament the faithful “obtain pardon from God’s
mercy for the offense committed against Him, and are, at the same time, recon-
ciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins”(”Lumen Gentium”,
11).
In the New Testament, the greatest of all offerings is the Eucharist. Although one
has a duty to go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, an essential
condition before receiving Holy Communion is that one be in the state of grace.
It is not our Lord’s intention here to give love of neighbor priority over love of God.
There is an order of charity: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the great and first command-
ment” (Matthew 22:37-38). Love of one’s neighbor, which is the second com-
mandment in order of importance (cf. Matthew 22:39), derives its meaning from
the first. Brotherhood without parenthood is inconceivable. An offense against
charity is, above all, an offense against God.
[The note on Matthew 5:6 states:
6. The notion of righteousness (or justice) in Holy Scripture is an essentially re-
ligious one (cf. notes on Matthew 1:19 and 3:15; Romans 1:17; 1:18-32; 3:21-22
and 24). A righteous person is one who sincerely strives to do the Will of God,
which is discovered in the commandments, in one’s duties of state in life and
through one’s life of prayer. Thus, righteousness, in the language of the Bible,
is the same as what nowadays is usually called “holiness” (1 John 2:29; 3:7-10;
Revelation 22:11; Genesis 15:6; Deuteronomy 9:4).]
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.